Wednesday, July 10 & Thursday, July 11

9:40 a.m. This was our last goodbye to Helen and Dan as they left to go home and we pulled away from the chapel in the TFC tractor.

Cerwin preparing his log for the first part of our trip home.

Some of Alberta’s flat land.

We “breezed through” the border at 1:15 p.m. – this time it only took a few minutes.

After entering the States (in Montana) we got on Route 2 and headed east – enjoying some of the same scenery we saw the week before – only in reverse.

We noted this place (Malta) on our Road Atlas on our trip west – thinking it would be a good place to stop on the way home. It was 5:50 p.m. when we got here, so it was a perfect place to get supper and park for the night.

We left Malta about 5:45 a.m. on Thursday, July 11, and later drove into a beautiful sunrise.

I love taking pictures this time of day because I like silhouettes.

When Cerwin stopped to clean the truck windows, I got outside and took a few pictures.

 It is difficult to keep trucks clean in this area, as many side roads are not macadamized.

Farmers are prepared to harvest many acres of grain.

We could see the silhouettes of cars in most of these train cars.

This train was side-by-side with us for so long that I told Cerwin to either slow down or go faster, because it was blocking my view of the countryside. 🙂

Surprise! Surprise! He chose faster. 🙂

Finally the track moved away from Route 2.

This song kept going through my head this morning:

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!

 America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

We reached North Dakota at 9:10 a.m. where the time zone changed from Mountain to Central.

We’re truckin’ now!

We saw lots of truck activity when we got to Williston, North Dakota, where the oil fields are flourishing.

By the time we got to Stanley, it was time for lunch and I needed another book. This time there was a Choice Books rack.

There were lots of dirty oil field trucks here, and very few people inside the truck stop without dusty boots – a sign of who was and who was not working in the oil fields.

One-hour parking was the limit.

Oil wells abounded.

When going through Rugby, North Dakota, we saw this sign:

Rugby is the geographical center of North America.

It was interesting when I texted that to some of our children, grandchildren, and friends:

“We are going through Rugby, North Dakota, the geographical center of North America.”

Josh, “I’m in your front yard mowing your grass. Love that you are having fun.”

Deb, “Cool.”

Diane, “Neat. I’m at a red light.”

Nate, “Wow, that’s pretty cool.

Jordan, “Very nice.”

Roy, “I thought I felt the earth get knocked off its axis. Did Dad hit it with the truck?

Sam, “I am very busy at home.”

Jere, “Cool.”

By the time we stopped for the day – in Grand Forks, North Dakota – we had driven by several bee hives, and had parts of bees and nectar on all windshields.